Clippers guard J.J. Redick is out for about two months and might need surgery on his right wrist, but the veteran is looking at the brighter side of his impending shift on the sideline.

“I have enjoyed these 17 games I got to play immensely,” Redick said. “I love this team and I love playing for Doc (Rivers), so it’s very frustrating. But I’m an optimistic person and I look for the good in every situation, and I’ve already started thinking about all the positives two months from now. Mentally I’ll be fine.”

Redick broke the pisiform bone and suffered a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament. He will see hand specialist Dr. Steve Shin today.

“It’s an upper-body injury, so I can stay in great shape and get in even better shape cardio-wise,” Redick said. “While most guys’ legs are going to be tailing off toward the end of January, I’ll have fresh legs. A couple of coaches said it’ll be like trading for somebody right before the all-star break. I’m hoping I have five more months of basketball to play this season.”

Redick was hurt when he was spilled by Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins while going for a rebound. Redick said the play, which was whistled as a foul on Cousins, was not beyond a hard foul.

“When your momentum’s carrying you somewhere and you’re completely suspended in the air, any little nudge will get you going in an opposite direction,’ Redick said. “Unfortunately, it twisted me around a little bit, got me parallel to the floor and I fell.”

Redick said he has already recovered from a broken wrist at ages 7, 13 and 22 and trusts that however this injury heals, he will be able to recover completely.

“I’m not worried about that,” he said. “I trust the specialist. Dr. Shin has operated and seen a bunch of guys in the league so he knows what he’s doing, and I trust our training staff. I’ll be back soon.”

What it means

Clippers coach Doc Rivers has talked up the importance of Redick since before preseason camp opened.

“It takes out something that’s been huge for us offensively,” Rivers said. “J.J.’s movement, like I’ve been saying all year, is an offense in itself. And we are setting up a lot of offense off his movement to get to something else.

“He’s one of those guys that when he goes out, it changes a lot of what we do. We’re going to have to do it on the run. We don’t have a lot of time to prepare for the non-J.J. minutes going out on the road.”

The Clippers begin a seven-game Eastern road trip in Atlanta on Wednesday.

Eye in the sky

Guard Chris Paul was back in the starting lineup after missing Friday night’s game in Sacramento with a hamstring strain.

Twice during the fourth quarter, Paul went into the Clippers locker room to get extra treatment on his leg before returning to the game. Paul had 17 points and 10 assists in 34 minutes.

Rivers said he reserved the right to overrule his training staff if a player has been cleared to play but still doesn’t look right.

“I will (moniotor) by vision,” Rivers said. “The only part where I do get involved is if I watch him running and doing layups before the game and I don’t like it — I’ve done that before. That creates an argument. I don’t do it often but I’ve done it. But if I did see something, I’d say ‘enough.’ ”